Arrow: Black Canary’s Season 6 Costume Revealed

The arrival of Arrow season 6 gets closer by the day, but the wait just got harder to stand now that Black Canary’s new costume has been revealed. Not the original Black Canary, Laurel Lance – she’s still long gone – but the brand new bearer of the Canary mantle, Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy). After emerging in season 5 as a version of Canary a bit closer to the DC Comics version, the show’s producers are promising a true acceptance of her superhero identity – and that calls for an Arrowverse costume of her very own.

It’s a bit ironic, since Dinah’s debut in the previous season actually seemed a far closer fit for the comic book version of Black Canary than Arrow had reached before it. Not only were Dinah’s street-savvy jeans, boots, and cropped leather jacket a match for most of her non-Justice League comic appearances, but her ‘Canary Cry’ was a metahuman ability, too. Comic book accuracy aside the theme of Arrow season 6 is “family,” and to be a part of the Arrow tribe, a leathery vigilante look and domino mask is almost mandatory.

The reveal comes courtesy of EW, along with some comments from producer Wendy Mericle about the greater significance of Dinah’s costumed look. She’s not only ‘suiting up’ with Team Arrow in a literal sense, but a thematic one. The former police officer may have been apprehensive about taking on a life of vigilante heroism instead of simple revenge, but those days are truly behind her. When the season premiere jumps ahead of Arrow‘s shocking season finale, Dinah will be a changed woman.

Take a look at the full costume before it makes it debut in the Arrow 6 season premiere:

At first glance, the costume won’t raise too many eyebrows or shock many onlookers – by this point, the standard for Arrowverse costumes has been well and truly set. Aside from the fact that Dinah’s new domino mask has some serious Alicia Silverstone/Batgirl vibes, the long gloves, bo staff, and black leather is what fans have come to expect. Still, it’s a step away from previous designs for either Sara or Laurel Lance’s hero, and one towards Oliver’s own aesthetic. A visual sign of just how much Oliver is mentoring Dinah in Season 6? We’ll have to wait and see.

Knowing that fully replacing Laurel Lance as the show’s only black-leather-clad Canary had to be handled the care, Mericle has already explained how the memory of Laurel Lance will be honored in the coming season. In the interview, she even confirms that a costume for Dinah was originally considered for the previous season. But only with a new start, a new season, and a new mission for the show’s heroes did it finally feel right to debut her new look:

“Last season, she wasn’t a full fledged superhero, you could say. She was, she had this power, she had this ability, she was part of the team, but really what this costume signifies more than anything is that she is now a full-fledged member of the team. She was before. But she’s now owning it in a different way. We had talked about having the costume at various points last season and it never felt right. It felt that we wanted to save it for a special occasion, and the premiere seemed like a really good place to do it.

“She needs something tactical. She has this meta power, but she also has the bo staff, so we just felt it was right for her to have something that was definitely more than a nod to the DCU character, but also something that was distinctive from what we’ve seen before. This really fits the bill. Maya Mani, as usual, did an amazing job with it. My favorite part is actually the subtle hint of the gold and yellow lines in it.”

Season 6 of Arrow, begins with “Fallout” on The CW @9pm, Thursday, October 12th.